Synopsis
February 22, 2005 - Orion visits Dan at his garage to get some answers about being a Shifter.
Setting
Dan’s Auto Shop:
The garage is a large space, the tools rest on the left wall a waiting room leads off the right and the office sits to the back of the room.
Cast
Dan:
Standing at 6'0" and of a fairly slender build the man before you is in his mid-to late twenties at most, he has short cut blond hair kept just scruffy enough not to seem accidental, his eyes are a dark brown. Hes got just the first hint of stubble showing.
Slender, yet looking as though he exercises regularly the mans dressed casually, a black T-shirts worn, also he wears faded blue jeans and white trainers.
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Orion:
You see a man in his mid thirties who stands a little over six feet and weighs approximately 180 pounds. One can tell by looking at him that he works out regularly. His face is rugged but attractive, usually with a couple of days worth of stubble on his cheek. His hair is brownish red and cropped short, spiking up a bit on top. His eyes are deep gold and appear to be almost an unnatural shade. He bears a tattoo of a paw print on his left upper arm. When the man speaks, he has a very distinct Irish accent. It is strong, but not to the point that he is difficult to understand.
The man is wearing a tight fitting brown shirt with blue jeans. He has brown boots on and a silver watch on his right wrist. His ears are each pierced with a silver ring, and he has mirrored sunglasses pushed up on his head.
Scene
It's closing time at Dan's Auto Shop, the garage is a large space, the tools rest on the left wall a waiting room leads off the right and the office sits to the back of the room. Dan's currently sitting in his office, finishing off the last of the days paperwork, there's no one else in the garage the blinds are open so that he can still see the main room while the shutters are still up.
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The sound of a motorcycle can be heard outside followed by the crunching on gravel and the beep of an alarm system being turned on. The crunching gets closer until Orion reaches the door to the garage, at which time he tentatively pokes his head in through the bay door and wanders in. “Hello?” He had called earlier to meet up with Dan, finally having worked up the nerve to seek some of the answers that had been bothering him since he met Abbey. He steps into the middle of the garage and looks around, apparently not noticing Dan sitting in his office.
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Dan gets up and heads for the door to his office. He smiles faintly as he recognises Orion. "Hey." He motions to the waiting room. "There's coffee in the waiting room.. or I've got soda's in my office." He leans on the doorframe as he talks obviously at his ease.
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Orion turns quickly and sees Dan, smiling. "Oh there ya are." He looks between the sitting room and the office and thinks for a moment, deciding that hed rather have a soda than suffer American coffee. "Yeah I'll have a soda if ya don't mind. Whatever you've got's fine." He approaches Dan's office and looks around once more, almost as if making sure there isn't anyone else in the garage. "So uh…Yeah thanks for agreeing to see me on such short notice. Just a few things I've been uh…I don't know. Confused about?"
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Nodding Dan steps back into his office, grabbing a couple of bottles of cola from a mini fridge he offers one to Orion with a wide grin. "Not a problem, I don't get to talk about it much myself." The English in his accent becomes more apparent when he's at ease. "I thought it best that waited until everyone else was gone." With that he heads back to his desk. "Please take a seat."
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Orion takes the soda and opens it, taking a sip. “Oh hey, you’re from the UK, ain’t ya?” Orion’s own Irish accent is fairly strong. He frowns for a moment, wondering if Dan had heard of his clan. The Barghest was a popular myth over much of the British Isles, though it seemed more common up in Ireland. After a moment’s hesitation Orion takes a seat and tries to look relaxed. “Honestly I didn’t know our kind was as common as it is. I just thought it was me and my family. Then I met a few people here.” He frowns slightly. “How many of us do you think there are?” Honestly Orion still somewhat doubts that he is a normal shifter. He cannot do some of the things that normal shifters can do, but maybe he is just trying wrong.
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Shrugging Dan grins seeming to consider that. "Well… honestly, I'm not sure. It also depends what you mean by 'us' I mean Two-Natureds? Well I've met four including you, but I know there's more, shifters I've only met one besides you." He takes a sip of his drink. "Which brings me to my question… you got a single form, or are you able to shift into anything you see?"
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Ah, a question Orion was wondering about. But first, “Two Natureds? I’m not quite familiar with that term. But yes. I can only become the Black…Er…The one form. My Uncle was the same. He told me that the entire clan could only become the one same form.” He ponders for a moment. “I met a werewolf here who said I should be able to shift into anything, but when I tried I could not. And though my form looks like a wolf, I’m not allergic to silver. So I don’t think I’m like her.”
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Nodding Dan chuckles. "Yeah, shifters aren't allergic to silver, but some only seem able to pick the one form. And Two-Natured's is a term I've heard used for Shifters and Weres collectively." He runs a hand through his hair. "I'm one of the lucky few it seems, I can shift into any animal I've got a visual image of." He shrugs. "There are a few rules we all follow though, such as shifting at the full moon."
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Orion nods. "I see, so not everyone can become any animal. I guess that makes sense. Here I thought I was odd. Well, odder than just being able to turn into an animal." He nods again. "And yes. The moon does affect me. Even during the day if it will be full that night I notice a change in my personality. And I discovered that eclipses cause me to shift as well, which was not fun to discover." He ponders for a moment. Other 'Two-Natureds' seem to be able to use their animal senses while human. Is that typical? I can't seem to figure out how to access that ability, though when I meet other shifters I get an odd…Feeling inside. Almost like excitement I suppose."
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Shrugging Dan laughs. "I have sharper senses than normal, I wouldn't say I use animal senses, but my senses are better than most humans." He frowns thinking about that for a moment. "I'm not sure but I think the Were's might just edge the rest of us in that regard." He takes another sip of his drink. "I can tell shifters, I wouldn't say I can tell /how/ I tell but I know one when I meet one. Were's are a different experience." He shrugs a little. "You can sense 'em, but it's different."
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Orion thinks about that one for a moment. “Yeah, I suppose the one I saw as having an acute sense of smell was a werewolf. And I do get above average senses once in a while, I just thought it was something other shifters experienced all the time. For example, when I just shift back into a human or when I get really annoyed. Although both times are probably not the best times to be around me.” He thinks about any odd feelings he gets when he is around Abbey. “I can’t think of anything odd that I sense around the werewolf I know, though I KNOW that she is a werewolf now. When I first met her I may have been distracted by her dog. They tend to attack me.”
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Shaking his head Dan grins. "Nah, dogs tend to smell something funny on some of us, I never had the problem, but then I don't spend much time as a dog, so maybe that's got something to do with it." He nods. "Well I've got /very/ good eyes, and my sense of smells sharp enough that I can smell things others wouldn't, for me it's there all the time, but I'm nowhere near animal levels." He frowns slightly. "Shifters and Weres tend to feel a strong attraction to each other, I don't know why, and frankly I generally don't pay it any mind, but it's part of the difference about shifters and weres." He pauses a moment. "So, tell me a little about this luck thing?"
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“Yeah, maybe they do just smell the dog on me.” He shakes his head. “Ah it’s probably just the curse. My clan’s never been good with dogs.” He ponders for a moment about the improved senses. If Dan can do it all the time, and Orion can do it some of the time, then maybe Orion can learn to access it whenever he needs it without having to put himself in a specific mindset. He takes a long drink of his soda and hesitates before answering the next question. “Well, Have you ever heard of the Barghest? It’s the Irish Black Hound from legend. That myth was started by my clan. We turn into the Barghest. I actually thought I was something entirely different from shifters until a short while back. Anyway, seeing my in shifted form causes terrible luck. And everyone in my family has died under terrible circumstances.” He shrugs. In truth, he cannot change a person’s luck. He just blames unlucky occurrences on himself.
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Shrugging Dan sighs a little. "Honestly, I wouldn't trust the legend… at least not until the numbers had been crunched. How can you be sure that seeing this other form of yours causes bad luck?" He frowns slightly. "Don't get me wrong, if I thought only my family could shift then I'd likely believe any myth I heard related to it as well, but I'm not hearing anything to imply that you're anything other than a shifter, maybe the lucks just a placebo? You think you cause bad luck so you blame the bad luck you do see to the curse?"
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Orion frowns. That’s pretty much the exact same thing Abbey had said. “I wish I could believe that, but it just seems to common. I’ll walk into a room and someone will break a glass. I’ll walk by someone on the street and they’ll trip.” He shakes his head. “I mean, the Black Hound shows up in all sorts of myths and legends. You could pick up any book on Irish mythology and you’d find it there. And then there’s my family. My uncle was killed by a falling chandelier. I mean, that just doesn’t happen. It doesn’t.” He shrugs. It seems that he leaves certain aspects of the myth out, such as the fact that the Black Hound has been known to protect travelers and walk beside them on the road. Also the fact that most of his apparent ‘bad luck’ seems to occur when he is in human form.
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Nodding Dan sighs, his expression thoughtful. "How often's it happen? I mean I see random bad luck every day or so… so do most people, if you're looking for it you're even more likely to see it than most." He laughs. "And falling chandeliers kill people, it's not common but it happens I know someone who died tripping on a curb, foot slipped off the edge of the curb and they broke their neck." He shrugs "The Black Hound did exist, it's the animal your family most commonly shifts to, we tend to get noticed when we shift because we don't act like normal animals…. so of course it's drawn notice, a strange acting black hound would draw notice."
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Orion ponders this for a moment and shakes his head. “I guess I notice one or two things a day.” He shrugs. “And maybe my family did get noticed for acting strange, but I mean…The Black Hound LOOKS strange and SOUNDS strange, too. I recently learned there’s a pack of werewolves in Ireland right around where I lived. I never noticed them and I used to go out as a hound all the time. I can only assume they were avoiding our clan. Animals avoid me, people who are around me too much get hurt.” He shrugs. It appears that when you grow up hearing the same thing over and over you eventually start to believe it. “The werewolf I met said that Shifters imprint to get their form. Why would our family all become the beast and not like…A sheep or a fox or something?”
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Shrugging again Dan seems to give that last a bit of thought. "Some families imprint on a single form, I've heard rumours, it's pretty rare but not unheard of. You just imprinted on a fairly noticable animal." He frowns a little, before shaking his head. "Weres tend to be a little elitest, most don't socialise with Shifters, they form packs and tend to think they're better than the rest. Not all of them of course, I happen to consider a Were amongst my friends, but it's not unlikely they simply didn't waste their time with you." He laughs. "Like I say, I see accidents all the time and I'm not looking, way I see it, you can go on believing something that likely started because of a lack of information, or you can accept that there's no logical reason to think you cause bad luck and work from there."
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"Yes, I've heard how elitist the werewolves can be…Form a werewolf actually." Orion takes another drink of his soda. "And I don't know what to believe anymore as far as the luck thing goes. I mean, I've seen a lot of unfortunate things happen in my life. But like you said, maybe I'm just looking for them." He sighs and moves on to his next question. "Ok, so vampires…Well I don't know much about them, but I assume they have some sort of organized government structure or something. I mean, they collectively decided to reveal themselves to the world and they seem to have specific spokesmen and such. Werewolves have packs. Is there any like…I don't know. Unified shifter hierarchy or anything I should know about? I mean, the general public seems not to know about us yet. I just want to make sure there isn't some group of shifters preparing to out themselves or something. I have a hard enough time being accepted in Texas without someone finding out I can turn into an animal generally considered to be cursed.
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Shaking his head Dan laughs. "Nah, that's one of the differences between Shifters and Weres, Shifters generally keep to themselves, I mean don't get me wrong back in England my parents had friends who were shifters, but there's nothing formal." He grins a little as he finishes his drink. "Honestly, I don't think I'd want any formality."
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Orion nods. "Yes well like you said, shifters tend to be attracted to each other. It probably wasn't difficult to find them. I never knew my family to have other shifters around, but who knows. Maybe I just never noticed. Or maybe they came around when I wasn't paying attention." He shrugs. "And yeah, I'm happy with there not being another government like-entity for me to have to follow.
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Shaking his head Dan laughs. "Shifters are attracted to /Weres/. Don't know why, but we are." He shrugs again his expression somewhat amused. "Strange thing is, we can't breed pure-blooded shifters with Weres, only with other shifters." He shrugs again.
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“Um…What?” Orion is apparently confused by all of this. “Right, ok. Genetically speaking. See I’m still thinking of this as a curse. So if I can only turn into one animal, that makes me probably not a pure blooded shifter, right?” He ponders for a moment. “But I’m fairly certain both my mother and father were shifters. And I know my uncle was a shifter.” He frowns. “And none of them are alive today to clarify that for me.”
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Shrugging Dan frowns. "Both your parents were /shifters/ that means you're pure-blooded, if one of your parents had been human, or Were, that'd mean you'd be… something else, I've never met one but I hear they have a hard time of it, they only shift at the full moon, and they don't… I guess you'd say they don't change all the way." He shrugs looking at Orion. "I don't know why some of us can shift into multiple forms and some can't but it doesn't have anything to do with the purity of blood, at least not in my experience." He smiles to Orion. "You've gotta understand, I don't have all the answers, growing up I never had much reason to question it, it's just the way it was."
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Orion nods. "Right. Well maybe my family is just odd. Or perhaps I'm just not doing it right. I mean trying to turn into other animals aside from the hound. Come to think of it the Black Hound is a Donnelly curse. And my mother wasn't born a Donnelly. At the same time, she must have been a shifter or else I would be a…Whatever you just described. A half shifter or something. I don't know what she would have turned into, but it probably wasn't the Barghest." He ponders for a moment. "Maybe I should look up some of my family on her side. They were…The Murphy clan I believe."
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Shrugging Dan smiles slightly. "Like I say it happens. You're not unique, if anything I'm the only shifter capable of turning into multiple forms I know of in the city, I've heard of a few other shifters, but none that aren't single form." He frowns slightly. "I'd suggest learning more about your mothers side." He grins a little. "But the simple fact is I wouldn't over think it, I don't know if it's genetic or if it's magic, but either way I can't see anything to set you apart from most other shifters, and I've got by fine without worry /why/ I can do what I do, that'd likely just drive you crazy."
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Orion shrugs once more. “Yeah I suppose. But I’m curious, you know? I work in the Museum of Art trying to figure out all sorts of things associated with myths and legends, it’s just what I do. Maybe I will try to hunt down some Murphys. I’m sure there are some floating around Ireland still. Some may even have moved to the USA.” He looks at Dan with curiosity for a moment. “Wait, if you can turn into any animal, then what do you become when the moon is full? Do you turn into something different every time you see a
different animal?”
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Shaking his head Dan laughs. "I turn into my last shift." He frowns slightly. "Finding Murphy shifters might be a little difficult… considering how common Murphy is right? Do you know any of your mothers relations?"
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Orion frowns at this very valid point. “Um…I suppose it IS a common name, isn’t it?” He ponders for a moment. “I suppose I could look up my Aunt Deidre, though I haven’t spoken with her since shortly after my mother died. I don’t know if she’s even still alive honestly. Maybe I can find something in the records at one of my manners back in Ireland, too. Though I’m in no hurry to get back there right now.”
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Shrugging Dan looks at Orion. "At the end of the day we've all got to work out if we can handle living with what we know or not, personally, I'm happy to know what I do, I don't know as I'd like to know too much more." He shrugs. "I'm happy with what I know, I don't feel like I /need/ to know anything else."
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Orion nods and finishes up his soda. “Yes, well there isn’t the question of a terrible curse hanging over your head, now is there?” He smirks and stands up. “Well thank you very much for your help, Dan. I should probably be heading out, though. I didn’t mean to use up so much of your time.” He places his bottle in the recycling basket and steps toward the door. “Perhaps I’ll see ya around sometime, eh?”
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Nodding Dan smiles slightly as he rises from his seat. "No worries, I like the oppertunity to speak with someone about these things, I don't often get it." He shrugs. "Drop me a line whenever you want."
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Orion nods and offers a wave. “Alrighty. Well I’ll see ya around. Thanks again.” He steps out of the office and walks to the parking lot. The sound of his bike can be heard starting up followed by a gradual decrease in volume as it speeds down the road.
~ Fin ~
